Families in the deep, Thailand / 2019

Thailand is generally known as a Buddhist country, but approximately 80% of the population in Thailand’s three deep southern provinces (Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat) along the Malaysian border are Muslims. Deep southern Thailand was once ruled by Malay Islamic kingdom "Pattani Kingdom", but the three provinces were integrated into Thailand in the 20th century. Deep southern Thailand faced a crisis of culture, religion, and identity due to the rapid Thaiization policy by Thai government. As a result, the independence and resistance movement became serious in the 1960s. The resistance movement became calm decades later, but the conflict against Thai government have reignited from around 2004, and over the next 10 years there have been more than 6,000 deaths and more than 10,000 injuries. Currently, the conflict against Thai authority seems to have calmed down in major cities of the deep southern Thailand. At small villages in the mountainous area, however, young local men who suspected of sporadic terrorist attacks and links to armed groups have been killed, arrested or detained by security forces even now. There are some cases where evidences and allegations themselves are suspicious, and the actual trial also may takes up to four years. Originally poor people's lives in the region are even worse because of the sudden loss of their husbands, sons and father. The remaining family members are waiting for their loved, not knowing when they will be released.